293.
Once again I would like to thank you all for your words of sympathy and empathy with my current plight, and for all the encouragement and concern that many of you have expressed. I struggle on in the certain knowledge that my discomfort, painful and debilitating as it may be, is temporary, and for that I am truly thankful, for I am only too aware that there are others who have more serious ailments, who are in greater pain and who have no certainty of relief, either for themselves or their loved ones (one who springs instantly to mind is the ever optimistic and cheerful Petesie, whose courage and stoicism I truly admire). So, enough of this self-pitying. I did manage to get some work done today, and I helped Dave (the handyman) when he came to replace the few slates that had fallen off of the roof during the recent storms. (When I say I helped him, what I actually did was stand on the bottom rung of his ladder while he climbed up on to the roof.) Brilliant man that he is, he was here for over three hours cleaning windows, clearing gutters, nailing down flashing, replacing the putty on a leaking skylight and, of course, fitting the new slates, and he only asked for £40. Diamond geezer, as the London wide-boys say. Talking about poor unfortunates and diamond geezers, I came across this group of blutakbeasts trying to help one of their own who rather stupidly believed that it could stick this pebble to a vertical surface.